SMEs urged to adopt business VoIP

Business VoIP is now at its most economically accessible, and can now be implemented easily by all firms, both large and small. This is the recent view expressed by Mike Eagle, general manager of the Federation of Communication Services (FCS) in the US.

According to Eagle, not only has the cost of business VoIP (voice over internet protocol) come down substantially, but there are now many more complete service packages available; all of which, he says, makes business VoIP a viable and accessible option for small and medium sized enterprises(SMEs) as well as larger corporate players.

It is a fact, for example, that many smaller businesses have, over the past few years, been greatly assisted in adopting business VoIP through using the services of a host business VoIP provider, or a third party VoIP reseller.

Not only has this enabled these businesses to save on having to purchase their own internet protocol (IP) telephony equipment, but it has also given them ready access to otherwise costly specialist technical assistance.

Other companies, with older business phone systems, have also saved money on adopting VoIP by connecting their older networks to IP telephony channels via the installation of relatively inexpensive session initiation protocol (SIP) trunking equipment.

For those SMEs still unsure of the benefits of adopting business VoIP, Eagle has emphasised the greater flexibility and added value benefits which the technology can offer, rather than any phone bill savings (although it should be noted that the US Internet Telephony Service Providers’ Association recently cited savings in phone costs as one of the likely consequences of adopting business VoIP).

Meanwhile, industry analyst, Rob Enderle, has echoed Eagle’s insistence that the time is now right to adopt VoIP, saying: ‘It’s not going away and now it’s just a case of folks moving away from the way they were doing things to a new thing’.